Lothar Dietrich

Lothar Dietrich (died 1618) was a Bohemian Catholic military captain during the Thirty Years' War.

Biography
Lothar Dietrich was born in Brunn, Bohemia (present-day Brno, Czech Republic) to a Catholic Czech family, and he served in the city guard for several years. In 1618, he participated in a Catholic uprising against the Protestant Bohemian nobility, liberating Brunn - a 58% Catholic city - from Protestant minority rule (27% of the population). The city's Catholic burghers decided that Dietrich, a guard captain, should be appointed the military chief of the Catholic enclave, and he commanded its defenses when the Protestant army of Ladislav Velen von Zerotein besieged the city shortly after the Battle of Brunn. Dietrich's 559 troops fought bravely, with 325 of them dying in battle and 59 more being captured. In the aftermath of the battle, the Protestants decided to massacre the Catholic population of Brunn, killing 3,722 people. Dietrich was among those to be executed by the Protestant army.